happy days

Sylvia had a great week at daycare. Drop offs were not perfect, but got a little better each day. Every day when I picked her up she was happily playing and smiling. Tuesday, when I got there she was dancing in front of a mirror with Miss Beth to the Aladdin music, and could not have been happier. Wednesday the teachers wrote on her update sheet that she especially liked singing the Elmo song, and I caught her singing pieces of the Elmo and Big Bird song that afternoon. I think she is really starting to have fun again, thank goodness. Sylvia impressed her teachers this week by pointing out the colors she knew in a book, and she was eager to impress me when I came to pick her up, by pointing to each sippy cup on the counter and telling me who drinks from each cup.

I took her to the park one day after daycare, and we had a lot of fun. Sylvia loved watching the squirrels going up and down the trees and learned that blowing on the dandylions is fun; getting little fuzzy seeds in your mouth is not.

for some reason she reminds me of John with her little belly hanging out :)

She also went down the slide completely by herself for the first time (I was too busy chasing her to get a picture), and a little boy convinced her to crawl under a playground bridge with him, because he saw that she was too little to climb over it (shhhh... dont' tell Daddy Sylvia is already sneaking around with little boys!)

master of a tiny universe

At this moment in Sylvia's world, Mommy and Daddy are not only the center of her universe, but in her eyes we control the universe, including everything she sees and hears. She is in the habit lately of asking "Again?" everytime she sees or hears something she likes. In the last week or so that has included watching an airplane go by (Again?), hearing a fun song on the radio (Again?), and hearing the people clap on Jeopardy (Again?). Alas, we don't have DVR, so I couldn't even make her last wish come true, although I promised, there would be people clapping on Wheel of Fortune too.

She is doing really well with the potty, and has asked to use it with success several times this week. She also pretended to need the potty once when she didn't like her dinner the other night. Outsmarted by a 1 year old. She has started clapping and cheering for me when I use the bathroom. I suppose it is only the polite thing to do, after all, we have a little party each time she goes potty :)

It is amazing how much our lives have changed in the short year and a half since she was born. The other week during dinner, John looked at me very seriously, and asked if I knew that Pinky the beanie baby had the same birthday as me, per the tag attached to the little flamingo. (He had just been playing with basket of animals with Sylvia.) I think it is sooo funny that our "normal" dinner conversation has evolved (disintegrated?) to discussing the pretend birthdays of stuffed animals.

I am looking forward to getting some photos and/or videos of Sylvia's swim lesson on Saturday. She had her first lesson with Daddy last weekend, but I didn't go, because I was worried she might be nervous and cling to me, which would defeat the purpose of Daddy / Daughter swim class. However, Sylvia bravely jumped in the pool with her daddy and did whatever the teacher asked (lay on her back, kick, do the hokey pokey, etc..) She's growing up so fast.

Happy Birthday Auntie Mo!!

Sylvia is totally obsessed with birthdays right now, so lucky for her, we know a lot of people with Fall B-days! We celebrated Morgan's birthday this past weekend with the family, including great-pop-pop. (I still have trouble believing Morgan is 22; I feel like I am the one who is 22....). I often catch Sylvia singing happy birthday by herself "Happy to you, happy to you......" It's one of her favorite songs right now, along with "you are my sunshine", and "ABC.."

Sylvie wore her Eagles cheerleader outfit to cheer the Eagles onto victory, and had a lot of fun playing with Brock. I asked the kids to put their heads together for a picture at the kitchen table, so Sylvia put her head way back in her chair and made funny faces. I guess she didn't quite understand what I was asking :)

They had the most fun playing Ring around the Rosie (despite Morgan's protests that the game is morbid...best not to think about it). Sylvia and Brock both thought it was funny to drop down before my mom would say "All Fall Down", and laughed hysterically each time. My mom was worried someone might get hurt, so she tried to teach them to do it the "right way" with limited success. In the end, they played "their way" by themselves, landing each time in a fit of giggles. I definitely need to take more videos than I have been.